Infinite | Chosen Series book one ❄️

11

"Aria..." I feel my shoulders moving. I'm not doing that. Someone is shaking me awake. "Aria?"

My lips part slightly, a weak attempt to wake up and reply.

"Aria, you've got to wake up." It's Nate's voice in my ear. "Come on."

"What time is it?" I ask. How long was I asleep? An hour?

"It's six."

"Six!" I finally open my eyes. Nate is crouched over me with his face about a foot from mine. His hands are still on my shoulders. "Why did you let me sleep so long?"

"I didn't mean to," he says sheepishly. "I fell asleep too."

"Well we don't need to go for breakfast until seven thirty so I'm just gonna..." I close my eyes again and turn over. If I can manage at least another hour of sleep, I'll be better prepared for what's coming today.

"Nuh uh, if they catch you sleeping here you might get in trouble."

"They're not going to check in here." I growl, wanting him to leave and let me sleep.

"They might!" He protests. "Get up."

"Too sleepy. Must recharge. Life battery low. Movement is unadvised." I say robotically.

"Very funny." He reaches around my torso and lifts me into the air. "How's this?"

"Better." I giggle, bouncing ever so slightly with every step he takes.

"Shhh, if you laugh they'll hear you." He teases. As we round a corner, my ankle hits the wall.

"Ow!" I whisper. "I'm sure they're more likely to hear that bang."

"Fine, stealth mode now." He walks slower.

"Wow." I draw out the word, eyebrows raised. "Nate the ninja."

"Mmhm, I hope you're scared now. Cross me and I can ninja kill you."

"'Ninja kill' me?" I roll my eyes.

"It's the most deadly type of death." He chuckles in my ear.

"Weirdo." We reach my dorm and he stops.

"How dare you?" Nate feigns hurt. "I carried you all the way here, and you repay me with an insult?"

"Well, to be fair, you're the one who insisted on me getting back here." I point out

He smirks and then unexpectedly drops me. I gasp and grab his wrist for support. "You are awful!"

"Oh come on, you know you love me." The smirk remains.

"You're so full of yourself." I sigh.

I turn the knob and open the door, careful not to be too loud and wake up Carrie. I pause and turn back around to look at Nate. "Thank you, Ninja."

"See you at breakfast." He smiles a big, open mouthed smile that causes me to mimic the expression. 

I close the door after he begins to walk away and then I go back to sleep.

*****

The last time in the chambers before our big test goes pretty well. It's the same test as yesterday, and I sped through it. I was hoping to have lots of time before the scary final test. Now I'm waiting in the hallway after having had lunch. In a few minutes we'll be let into the chambers room to begin the test.

"What one did you find hardest?" I ask Jen. She's sitting across from me with her back against the opposite wall.

"The numbers, honestly. Hurt my head. What about you?" She stretches her arms out above her head.

"Hm. I think for me finding objects was the hardest, but I found it fun. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah, like chemistry class." She nods.

"Pretty much."

"Two minutes! If anyone needs to go to the bathroom, hurry up." One of the leaders says loudly.

"How many people do you think will pass?" Jen knits her brows together.

"No clue." I shrug. "Hopefully most of us."

"Hopefully." She chews at her lip.

"Hey, you'll be fine!" I assure her. I truly believe she will be. Jen is smart.

Almost as if she can read my mind she responds with, "The frustrating part is that being smart doesn't sound like it will matter. They didn't say 'whoever is just naturally good at this' they said 'whoever shows enough improvement over the week'!"

I sigh. "I know. Do you think you've improved?"

"I think at least a little. What about you?" She answers.

"Well that's something then! I think I did as well, but I guess we won't know just how much until after."

"Yep..."

We wait in silence until the doors are unlocked and we're allowed to go inside. I walk to my chamber; a route I've easily memorized now. When I begin the test, it seems to start out just the same as all the others. Today I try and go faster than I ever had. It goes through the three stages —number patterns, objects, and humans— but then it joins all three together. I need to look for more than one code at once, an object with a person, a file with the code hidden among other files. My heart pounds as I continue on. Test, after test, after test. Then, just as my eyes begin to hurt from focusing so hard on the screen, it turns off. I'm left in complete darkness, waiting to find out if I passed. The lack of light from the screens gives my eyes a break at least, but my heart pounds even faster. Finally words appear on the screens to answer whether or not I passed.

Test Status: Completed. Shown Improval: Yes. Brain Compatibility: Yes

"I... I passed?" I say to myself. The words stay on the screen; I read them over and over. I really passed. I smile victoriously and wait for the chamber to unlock and let me go find out whether my friends passed or not.

I hear a slight hissing noise come from the top of the chamber, and look up to see a strange, black, mist like substance dispersing into the air. It looks the same as black ink in a glass of water, swirling in black clouds until everything is black. Slowly the air becomes thinner, and my throat begins to burn. The moment I realize what's happening, I start to bang at the glass sides of the chamber. I scream at first, but doing so causes even less air to reach my lungs, so I stop. Then everything else stops too.

*****

Carikavanlog has without knowing it, convinced me to try NaNoWriMo this year. November, here I come!

Please vote and leave me a comment if you enjoyed the chapter. What do you think is happening with Aria's chamber?